Do we need to winterize for a few days in Yellowstone?

[SarahElizabeth]

Hi there! We're planning on heading to Yellowstone in a few days - but we just saw that the lows are going to be in the 30s. Are we going to have to winterize in order to go? Or will it not be too much of a problem because the temps will be in the 60s during the day?

Thanks so much!

[pira114]

Slight hijack, but may be useful to the OP.

People keep saying to keep the thermostat down around 50 to prevent the battery from dying.

I camp/hunt in very cold weather, have one 7 year old battery (almost time for a new one), and keep my thermostat at 68. Yes the fan cycles on frequently during the night. But I can routinely get two days out of my battery like that before recharging. And it's never completely dead. I'm using non LED lights for a couple of hours each evening, the fridge is on, occasionally use the water pump, furnace fan almost all night, and then the tiny phantom draws.

Why are some people's batteries dying after one night, or especially halfway through the night? Fairly certain my battery isn't enchanted. Other than starting out at 100% (always use a battery tender when not in use), I don't do anything special.

Recently, I camped and didn't need the furnace at all. But we did use a 12 volt TV for at least 2 hours each night, and got 5 solid days before it was in need of recharging.

What gives? Any ideas? This is an old 1987 Wilderness. So it's definitely not a super efficient system.

Edit: I should add that during those cold trips, we leave at 0500 and don't return until early evening. Like maybe 5 to 6 pm. During that time, it's just fridge and phantom draw. But we hit the rack at about 8pm. So that furnace and fan are running for about 9 hours, give or take.

[csamayfield55x]

We often would take our old trailer snowmobiling. It had NO extra insulation and open bottom tanks. It never froze as long as you kept the heater inside at a reasonable temp. We kept ours in the mid 50's.

I did have to put some lights on the valves when I got home once to let them thaw a little but it wasn't that big a deal.

We were driving through Oregon one spring. A crazy cold front came through Klamath Falls and dropped temps to single digits and snowed. That 6 hour trip froze all the water lines up and it took us about 4 hours blasting the heater with all the cabinets open to thaw the water lines but no damage.

These lines are pretty durable for short cold snaps

Chris

[Bobbo]

Keep your furnace at 50 or 55 at night (to prevent the fan from running your battery down) and the cabinet doors open. You will be fine. We spent 2 weeks there in September of 2011. The only problem we had was learning that we could not keep the furnace on 70 all night, battery deader'n a doornail about 2am.

Furnace on 50 all night, first one up turns it back up to 70 and jumps back in bed for 20 minutes, all is right with the world.

[pira114]

My tanks are under the trailer. Not insulated. And not heated.

I've camped in mid teen weather with mid 40s by day. Only run the heater while sleeping and set it at 68. Never once has anything froze.

[tatest]

I've done OK in an environment where daytime temperatures were 40-50 F, night temperatures in the high 20s for a few hours. However, all of my fresh water tankage is in heated space, all of the fresh water plumbing runs are either in heated space or immediately under the flooring and still insulated from outside temperatures.

My waste tanks (with heating pads) are in unheated space, but whether or not contents are frozen does not matter until it is time to dump. I dump when I am in someplace warm enough.

I know nothing about the plumbing of Shasta RVs generally, and I suspect it is different model to model, as it is for other brands. This is something you need to analyze yourself, what is in heated space, what is exposed to sub-freezing temperatures, and how long will those spaces be subjected to freezing.

This is assuming that you will be running your furnace full time, to keep living areas at comfortable tempatures, so that heat loss will keep utility spaces above freezing most of the time. If you are not going to be running your furnace, it is best to winterize, and use the RV in winterized mode, which for most designs means no running water.

[SarahElizabeth]

We have a 2003 Shasta class C. Does that help?

Thank you so much for your help!

[Golden_HVAC]

It would help to know the year and model of RV that you are taking. ALso if the tanks are under the RV, or in a basement compartment.

I have a Fleetwood Bounder, and the salesman said I could camp in 10F weather, as long as the furnace stays on and keeps the inside around 70, then the basement will stay above 40, and nothing will freeze.

I have camped in 19F weather, no problems, and I used everything. I never winterized my RV until I moved to Oregon, and it actually spent time in the winter not in use. While in a campground at 20F outside, I was running a electric heater near my water pump (keeping the basement under my bed warm to about 55F) and 2 more electric heaters inside. The electric rate around here it is less expensive than running the propane furnace.

Have fun on your trip!

Fred.

[ReneeG]

kknowlton wrote:
I assume you don't have tank heaters. If you do, no worries at all. If you don't, leave cabinets open a bit overnight, so the heat from the furnace can reach more of the water lines. Definitely keep the water heater on while in camp. If temperatures are to be below freezing overnight, fill your freshwater tank enough for what you'll need in the night and disconnect your water hose, so the hose doesn't freeze up.

We've camped there under these conditions several times and had no problems. Good luck!

Yes, as said, leave the cabinets open, but, set your heater thermostat to 40 - 50 and bundle up under good blankets. What you're looking for is to keep the inside temp from freezing but not warm enough that your heater has to run all night and you end up with dead or low batteries in the morning . If you have a Heater Buddy use that first thing in the morning when you get up. They're safe to run at night, but we prefer not to and instead set the thermostat as stated and I jump up first thing in the morning and turn on the heater buddy.

[WyoTraveler]

This could be a hard fall frost in Yellowstone. They are predicting 26 Sat night and 24 Sunday night. Just watch the temps closely. This is just a quick storm but could bring in some really low temps. They were predicting snow at lower elevations (5000 ft) but don't know if that will happen. Looks like Cody will only be down to low 40s.

[tenbear]

We went to Yellowstone a few years ago about this time of year and we had snow on 2 of the 4 nights we were there. We did not take any precautions and there was no problem with the temperature.

[kknowlton]

I assume you don't have tank heaters. If you do, no worries at all. If you don't, leave cabinets open a bit overnight, so the heat from the furnace can reach more of the water lines. Definitely keep the water heater on while in camp. If temperatures are to be below freezing overnight, fill your freshwater tank enough for what you'll need in the night and disconnect your water hose, so the hose doesn't freeze up.

We've camped there under these conditions several times and had no problems. Good luck!

[Vulcan_Rider]

Nothing will freeze until the temp gets below 32 and stays there for several hours.

Even then, nothing will likely be damaged IF no pressure builds up.

I think if you heat the cabin, turn off the water pump and leave the faucets open you should be fine. Leaving the hot water heater on if you can would be good too.